I've been told that one of the problems with the
contemporary church is that it isn't always "user-friendly."
Of course, much of LIFE is not "user-friendly," but one of the
EXAMPLES of where this shows up in the church is in the language we use.

And I guess that means that the Bible isn't always
user-friendly, either.

But let me give the critics their due, and admit that
there are some words that even those of us who are on the inside may
have trouble with.

For starters, I can't figure out why we have to cope
with language that is three and a half centuries old, when contemporary
words would do just as well.

But more specifically, and more to the point of this
morning's sermon, I can still remember as a child learning the
twenty-third psalm and trying to figure out that line, "thou
anointest my head with oil." Well, my folks cleared up the thous,
and the thees, and the thys for me rather quickly. And they also
explained away the strange verbal constructions. But I was still left
with that odd word, "anoint."

Yet, I do not want to belittle it. Indeed, I think
it's a rather IMPORTANT word, although some television evangelists have
bent it out of shape. And it definitely has Biblical significance.

We find the words "anoint,"
"anointed," and "anointing" used about one hundred
seventy times in scripture.

So how do we go about understanding it? Well, I think
we should look to a story in the fourteenth chapter of the gospel
according to Mark. In the third verse we read, "While he was at
Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman
came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she
broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head."

Well, the disciples weren't too thrilled with this,
but Jesus defended her: "She has done what she could; she has
anointed my body beforehand for its burial."

So, "ointment" is oil; and the application
of the oil is "anointment." And scholars tell us that there
are three kinds of anointment: ordinary, sacred, and medical. Now let's
apply this to the opening to the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah:

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the
oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and release to the prisoners."

Now, this is a beautiful verse, but let's pull out
the middle of it: "...the Lord has anointed me; he has sent
me..."

I've heard pastors talk about their
"anointed" preaching, their "anointed" teaching,
their "anointed" sermons; and I've wondered to myself,
"who are THEY to declare THEMSELVES ANOINTED?"

I've always thought that was for God to know and the
listeners to find out. But maybe Isaiah is on the right track. Maybe it
is when we believe that we have been SENT by God that we can proclaim
that God has anointed us.

And what a powerful mission on which the prophet has
been sent! He continues to preach that he's been sent

"to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and
the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn."

A few years later, according to the gospel of Luke,
another young preacher "came to Nazareth, where he had been brought
up," [and] "went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was
his custom.

He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet
Isaiah was give to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where
it was written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to
proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the
scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.

The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing." And the anointing has taken place not
only for Isaiah, but also for Jesus of Nazareth.

And Isaiah goes on to tell us that he has been sent

"to provide for those who mourn in Zion--to give
them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of
mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be
called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his
glory."

There are a LOT of responsibilities in here. The Lord
has sent Isaiah, and Jesus, and us to do many things, to bring, to bind
up, to proclaim, to comfort, to provide, to give.

So where do we start? Well, maybe at the beginning:
"Bring good news." Because isn't it the good news that starts
the ball rolling for everything else?

When my sister learned that she was pregnant with her
first son, she called me to tell me about it. She told me, "John!
You're going to be an uncle." Well, I was slow on the response.
This was my baby sister.

She was about four years old when I graduated from
high school. And I really didn't know what she was talking about! I said
something like, "Oh?" And finally, she had to shout at me,
"John, I'm PREGNANT!"

And by that time, I figured that congratulations were
in order. But for Jane, LEARNING that she was pregnant changed her whole
world.

It was GOOD NEWS that would alter her work patterns,
her leisure, her diet, her relationship with her husband-- EVERYTHING.

So what difference will the good news make in the
lives of those who hear it from the prophet?

"They shall build up the ancient ruins, they
shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined
cities, the devastations of many generations."

Now, these are the Israelites returning home from the
Exile. And the prophet is anticipating great things being done by them.
But how are WE to interpret the words? What is being built up, raised
up, and repaired? Is it material things, or is it the people?

Or does it matter?

When I read that line, "repair the ruined
cities," I am reminded of Kansas City in the 1980's. Many folks had
written off downtown, but during the eighties the rebuilding was
unbelievable. And yet, just a few blocks away from shiny new buildings,
were the slums that just got worse and worse.

But the good news is not the Dow Jones Industrial
Average; the good news is not tax abatements or tax increment financing;
the good news is not venture capital. And I think that the folks living
during the reign of Solomon probably figured that out.

And I am SURE that those who lived through the exile
knew it.

But what does the prophet mean when speaking of
"the devastations of many generations"? I would suggest that
we're not talking about short-term problems here. We're not talking
about the misery of the moment.

But we're talking about attitudes, behaviors, and
beliefs that have been eating away at the people for a very long time.

So the prophet sees good things coming! And what is
to be the relationship of God with the people?

"For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and
wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will
make an everlasting covenant with them."

And remember, again, that these people have come out
of fifty years in exile. The only way they can hear these words, and the
way that WE should hear them, is for the long haul.

When I hear God say, "I love justice," I
also hear God say, "I AM justice." And when I hear God speak
of hating robbery and wrongdoing, that doesn't mean that it won't
HAPPEN; but it does mean that ultimately God's justice will prevail
AGAINST it.

God IS faithful, and God WILL reward us, and IS
rewarding us. And the reward is in the everlasting covenant, beginning
with Abraham and continuing through all of Abraham and Sarah's spiritual
descendants.

And the God who loves justice never stops trying,
never gives up. And the best evidence we have of this was to come some
five hundred years after the return from the exile in the person of
Jesus of Nazareth, anointed of God, to bring us the good news. Again.

And who ARE these people for whom God is doing all
this?

"Their descendants shall be known among the
nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall
acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed."

Well, it has now been about two thousand five hundred
years since the prophet said this. And nations and empires have risen
and fallen in great numbers in that time. And even today, mapmakers must
have the worst job in the world. Because who knows where to draw the
lines? And even where we have a good idea of where the lines are, think
of all the nations or states or whatever, where we are unsure of who is
in charge.

And yet, the spiritual descendants of those
Israelites, the Jews and Christians of today, ARE known among the
nations, among the peoples.

And ARE we a people whom the Lord has blessed? Amen.
Indeed we are.

But if you're going to answer that question by
measuring your material well-being against your neighbors, we're not
even on the same wave-length.

I would argue that we demonstrate that we believe
that we are a people whom the Lord has blessed by our very presence
here, by our desire to worship God together. And it is sad that there
are those who don't believe in God, or who doubt God's existence, or who
only find their blessings in the material world. Because the blessings
of the material world can be gone in an instant.

But the blessings of God are eternal.

And the prophet is excited by all this:

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole
being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of
salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a
bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself
with her jewels."

Now, I think there are a couple of things going on
here. God is taking care of us by clothing us and covering us; but God
is also giving us reason to celebrate new beginnings.

For my birthday several years ago, my parents sent me
a check for a gift. And Mother wrote, "buy yourself something
really NICE. For YOU." Now I tend to be functional in the way I
spend money. What do I NEED? What does it DO for me?

Well, I NEEDED a new bathrobe. The one I had was
developing rips and tears. And I decided I WOULD splurge and buy one
really nice. And I bought a really heavy terrycloth robe. Which my cat
then managed to snag in hundreds of places.

But when I put on that robe, I had a feeling of being
not only covered, but also of being COMFORTED and PROTECTED. And when I
read those words, "he has covered me with the robe of
righteousness," I also think of God's COMFORT and PROTECTION.

Clothed and covered with salvation and righteousness.
But each day for us in God's care can be seen as a day of new
beginnings, just as the day of the wedding feast for the bride and
bridegroom.

And as we experience God's care we have reason to
feel a sense of celebration in those new beginnings.

"For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and
as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will
cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the
nations."

And don't we take gardens for granted? Don't we just
assume that if we plant something in them, that they will "spring
up"? Don't we have FAITH that this will happen? So it is with God.
We can have faith that God WILL cause righteousness and praise to spring
up.

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because
the Lord has anointed me." I don't KNOW that God has anointed ME.
That's for God to know and for you to find out.

But I DO know that I believe that God anointed
Isaiah; and I DO know that I believe that God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth. And both of them have brought us the good news of God's grace.